What is growth hacking and using OKRs to hack your growth
In this blog we will be discussing growth hacking and exploring some ways in which you can use growth hacking to grow your business
As a small business owner, you're always looking for ways to grow your business. You may have tried traditional marketing methods, but you're always looking for new and innovative ways to reach your target market.
What is growth hacking?
Growth hacking is a process of rapid experimentation across marketing, product development, sales, and other channels in order to identify the most efficient ways to grow a business.
The term “Growth Hacking” that was coined by entrepreneur and marketer Sean Ellis in 2010. It's a method of marketing that focuses on growth, and it can be extremely effective for small businesses.
Growth hacking is basically a “hack” - a company that is implementing growth hacking, is looking for low-cost, yet effective and innovative solutions to acquire accelerated growth within a short period. It is about thinking outside the box and utilising all members of your team to achieve growth.
The process involves quick idea generation, experimentation, testing and measurement - to determine what works, and what does not work.
In this blog we will cover the following topics:
- Define growth hacking and how to get started
- The benefits of growth hacking and how it can help your business
- Examples of growth hacks that worked
- How to use Skhokho goal setting and measurement tool (OKRs) to start growth hacking today
How to get started with growth hacking
There is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question, as the best way for a company to get started with growth hacking will vary depending on the company's specific situation and goals. However, some tips on how to get started with growth hacking include:
- Identify your company's key growth metric: Without knowing what metric you want to grow, it will be difficult to set goals and measure success.
- Create a hypothesis about what will drive growth: Once you know what you want to grow, you need to generate ideas about what will cause that growth. This can be done through brainstorming sessions or by looking at what has worked for other companies.
- Test your ideas: Once you have a few ideas, it's time to start testing them to see what works.
- Measure and analyze your results: Once you've tested your ideas, it's important to measure and analyze the results to see what is working and what isn't. This will help you determine which growth hacking strategies are most effective for your company.
The benefits of growth hacking and how it can help your business
It's cost-effective.
Traditional marketing can be quite expensive, and it's not always guaranteed to be effective. Growth hacking, on the other hand, is a much more cost-effective way to market your business.
Its fast
Growth hacking is a quick way to grow your business. It's not about waiting for results; it's about seeing results quickly.
It's data-driven.
Growth hacking is all about using data to drive your marketing efforts. This means that you can track your results and make changes accordingly.
It's creative.
Growth hacking requires you to be creative in your approach. You need to think outside the box and come up with new and innovative ways to reach your target market.
It's effective.
Growth hacking is an effective way to grow your business. It's not a magic bullet, but it can be extremely effective if done correctly.
It's results-focused.
Growth hacking is all about getting results. Every growth hacker is focused on finding the most effective way to grow a company.
It's fast-paced.
Growth hacking is a fast-paced approach to marketing. This means that you have to be quick to implement new ideas and test their effectiveness.
It's team-oriented.
Growth hacking is a team sport. It requires close collaboration between different departments, such as marketing, product, and engineering.
Examples of growth hacks that worked
- Airbnb
- Dropbox
Airbnb
Airbnb is a perfect example of a company that has used growth hacking to its advantage. One of their most famous growth hacks was when they created a subdomain on their site, airbnb.com/cities, which was specifically designed for city-specific searches. This allowed them to not only improve their SEO, but also drive more traffic to their site. As a result, they saw a 20% increase in bookings.
Dropbox
Dropbox is another company that has used growth hacking to its advantage. One of their most famous growth hacks was when they offered users a free storage space of 2GB if they signed up for the service. This not only helped them to acquire new users, but also encouraged existing users to refer others to the service. As a result, they saw a 60% increase in signups.
Linkedin is a perfect example of a company that has used growth hacking to its advantage. One of their most famous growth hacks was when they created a “People You May Know” feature, which showed users potential new connections based on their existing connections. This not only helped them to acquire new users, but also encouraged existing users to use the site more frequently. As a result, they saw a 50% increase in signups.
Twitter is another company that has used growth hacking to its advantage. One of their most famous growth hacks was when they integrated with other popular services, such as Facebook and LinkedIn. This not only helped them to acquire new users, but also encouraged existing users to use the site more frequently. As a result, they saw a 400% increase in signups.
Pinterest is another company that has used growth hacking to its advantage. One of their most famous growth hacks was when they included “Pin It” buttons on popular websites, such as Tumblr and Etsy. This not only helped them to acquire new users, but also encouraged existing users to use the site more frequently. As a result, they saw a 700% increase in signups.
Facebook is a perfect example of a company that has used growth hacking to its advantage. One of their most famous growth hacks was when they created the News Feed feature. This not only helped them to acquire new users, but also encouraged existing users to use the site more frequently. As a result, they saw a 100% increase in signups.
Google is another company that has used growth hacking to its advantage. One of their most famous growth hacks was when they integrated Gmail with other popular services, such as Google Calendar and Google Drive. This not only helped them to acquire new users, but also encouraged existing users to use the site more frequently. As a result, they saw a 300% increase in signups.
How to use Skhokho goal setting and measurement tool (OKRs) to start growth hacking today
Skhokho business software has OKR (Objective Key Results) application for recording and tracking objectives and key results. OKRs are ideal for growth hacking because the provide:
- The ability to create objectives for any department in your business, for both teams and individuals
- Functionality to create Key Results Metrics that support the underlying objective
- The ability to regularly report on the progress of your metrics on a regular basis
- Feature for adding actions or tasks (things to do) in order to push the metric forward
See the process flow for creating OKRs on Skhokho:
Cross Reference OKRs to Growth Hacking
The growth metric
- This can be represented by an objective. Create an objective on Skhokho OKR app by defining the following:
- The title of the objective
- Decide if its a team or individual objective
- Select the the department and responsible person for the objective
- Pick the start and end dates, when the objective must be achieved
- Describe the details of the objective
The key results are just a break down of the objective, within the growth hacking realm, they would both fall under the high level definition of what is is you are trying to achieve (number of new users to revenue). The specific goal can be broken down in to multiple milestones and key results that can be measured separately.
Generate and test Ideas
Once the objective and key results are set, you can navigate to the detailed page for Key Results and start brainstorming with your team on what you can do to drive the key result forward.
Every idea can be documented as an action to be performed and assigned to an individual.
For example, if your key result is to get 100 new sign-ups, you need to brainstorm with your team to get ideas on how to achieve this, some ideas can include:
- Reaching out to influencers and partnering with them on their specific channels
- Starting a LinkedIn sales navigator campaign for cold outreach to potential clients
The ideas can be anything, but you can now document them as specific actions on your key results page.
Measure and analyse
This last step is the most important step in growth hacking. The ability to quickly determine if your ideas are working or not.
You can only determine this - if you are measuring a metric. With Skhokho OKR software, you are already covered, because the idea generation happens inside of a Key Result - that is measurable.
You can now update the metric on a regular basis and keep track of the progress you are making pushing the objective forward.
Get started with growth hacking using OKRs on Skhokho Today
Register for a 14 day trial today - https://skhokho.io/authentication/register
Read more about OKRs - https://skhokho.io/objective_key_results_okr_software
